No Minimum Salary = a Slave

[fivestars]

Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation. In some historical situations it has been legal for owners to kill slaves.

Human trafficking is primarily for prostituting women and children into sex industries. It is the fastest growing criminal industry and is predicted to eventually outgrow drug trafficking.

Labor rights or workers' rights are a group of legal rights and claimed human rights having to do with labor relations between workers and their employers, usually obtained under labor and employment law. In general, these rights' debates have to do with negotiating workers' pay, benefits, and safe working conditions. One of the most central of these "rights" is the right to unionize. Unions take advantage of collective bargaining and industrial action to increase their members' wages and otherwise change their working situation. The labor movement initially focused on this "right to unionize", but attention has shifted elsewhere.

Singapore Work Permit Holder shall join Worker Union to fight for labor rights. Singaporean not even had a chance to fight for minimum wages. Current salary not even can buy food, house, electrical bill, water bill, telephone bill and so on. We are not a slave

 

[fivestars]

Recently, NTUC Chief Lim Swee Say was reported to have said that minimum wages would have no effect in helping the lower income families. Perhaps, he had mistaken their values and importance of safeguarding the basic rights of low-wages workers and do not understand the purpose of minimum wages. In a modern and progressive society, it would be unethical to sacrifice the workers’ rights and benefits, especially when one is within the “first world” environment.

While Singapore’s GDP may have appreciated by about 15%this year, the general wages of most workers have remained stagnant and symptom of declining especially the lower and unskilled workers. Last year in 2009, average wages have decreased by 3.5%. Since we have free competition in the local labour market, it is important that we recognise and safeguard the rights of our entire workforce.

A recent study on Minimum Wages in the US (the Annuals of Economics and Finance) had shown that it disadvantages were actual exaggerated. The most common objection to any increment in the minimum wages was that mainly from small business owners. They felt that the increment in labour costs would ultimately lead to reduced employment and eventually leads to the failure of business. However, a growing number of new studies showed that the flexibilities of employees and employers were being overlooked, whenever the minimum wages changes. Studies also noted that those States that increased their minimum wages, have shown stronger job growth instead, when compared to those whose the minimum wages remained static. Moreover, the risk of business failure did not increase whenever there is an increment to the minimum wages.

Many countries have already implemented the Minimum Wages Policy in their labour market, though in practice they do vary considerably. The pertinent points include:
• The Minimum Wages Policy prevents the wages of lower income workers from further downward revision, due to the huge availability of foreign workers, or from the increased business overheads,
• It helps to improve workers’ confidence in the seeking of viable jobs, and encourages the unemployed to seek alternate employment such as contract work, instead of waiting for more permanent and higher paid positions,
• It establishes a fairer employment environment for all workers,
• It motivates the low-wages labourer to perform better to achieve a higher productivity which would contribute towards better economic growth,
• It helps to reduce the income gap between the rich and the poor, by increasing spending power.
• It reduces the number of families requiring social assistance from the Government, and therefore reduces the volume of social problem.

It is undeniable that Singapore would continue to reply on foreign labour to feed its industries, for the sake of economic growth. We can always find younger, faster better and CHEAPER workers in the world market with more than 10 billion people to replace our 3 million Singapore citizens in the whole spectrum of our workforce. This will definitely put pressure on our wages and thus, the standard and quality of living of our citizen. Thus, some form of Minimum Wages guideline should be put in place to protect the interest of the unskilled and lower-income workforce.

Since the levels of Minimum Wages would depends much on the performance of the National economy, such statistic can be used to help Government to gauge the impact of the labour demand. The success of such a scheme would also depend on the level of collaboration between the Authorities, the Employers and the Business community. At the same time, skills enhancement training should be extended and easily made available to all workers, with generous subsidies.

Singapore needs to develop a better infrastructure and a more conducive environment for the growth of its workforce. A skilled workforce is more productive than unskilled one. The current influx of cheap foreign workers reflects poorly on our productivity and on the success of the Government’s program to enhance productivity. It is therefore essential that we do not step backwards to accept the low productivity performance of those foreign labourers, if we are to sustain ourselves as a “first world” nation.

Elvin Ong
Webmaster
Young NSP - Young Solidarity Committee
National Solidarity Party

 

[da dick]

wouldn't be a problem if they didn't flood the market with cheap replacements and outsource everything but their pappy dog jobs. we didn't have this problem in the 80s.

 

[fivestars]

We are not born as slave. Wake up Singaporean.

 

[fivestars]

We can compare 2006 GE Red Flag Edmund Ng team and 2011 GE Blue Flag Goh Meng Seng team result. Blue win or Red lose.

 

[zuoom]

erm, would the minimum wage thing like in Hong Kong work here?

 

[fivestars]

The question of minimum wages in Hong Kong or any country was not important.

Before having a labor law, Singaporean is given home and food without wages.

After having a labor law, Singaporean living in First Class world but taking a third wolrd salary. It is different from Japanese as our model country.

 

[fivestars]

Since NTUC unable to follow Japanese Employer model. The employee shall asking for minimum wages to prevent work permit holder having a job yet Singaporean jobless because Singapore Parliment do not had minimum wages theory.